Friday, we left our isolated campground and moved 85 miles to Escapees RV Park in Summerdale, Alabama. We are camped on site number 32 for a week. Although there are other campers here, the sites are spacious.
We went to Weeks Bay Nature Preserve for a quick look around. We walked the board walk and the nature trail at the Visitor's Center. The Boardwalk had a lot of trees down from the hurricane which provided a good hiding place for the birds that we heard. We found quite a few, new species of plants for us, along the way and a few spiders.
We also found an Eastern Spadefoot and Bar-winged Skimmer.
Our favorite walk of the day was the Pitcher Plant Bog a few miles from the visitor center. The Bog has White Pitcher Plants that are not seen at the Sandhill Crane Refuge. They were very tall, and very pretty. Several of them still had their pretty, red blooms.
It was a lot harder to find the Parrot Pitcher Plants. We finally found a few of the plants with a little help of their blooms.
The Mabel Orb-weaver spider was showy as well.
Several miles of hiking and several hours later, we made it back, from our supposedly, quick look around and got the Ferny Kat approval for the campground.
We had a 90% chance of rain prediction for Saturday. We were planning on staying in all day and watching it rain. Luckily, we only had light showers in the morning. We spent most of the day getting caught up with our pictures then took a ride this afternoon.
Traffic on a Saturday afternoon near Florabama was backed up for about a mile. When we finally found an area where we could turn around, we headed back to camp.
Ferny Kat came outside and rolled around in her favorite spot. The wind finally got on her last nerve, (and ours), and inside we went.
Sunday, we went to Splinter Hill. Our first stop was the Bog. It was gorgeous with all the White topped Pitcher Plants.
We also found two other pitcher plant species that are not found at the Sandhill Crane Refuge: Mitchell's Pitcher Plant and Burks Southern Pitcher Plant.
We hiked the trail for a while taking pictures of the critters and plants.
We checked out West Pitcher Plant Loop. The only bog we found, was the boggy mud under our feet. Although there were a few pitcher plants at the beginning of the trail.
We continued our search for the bog at the East Pitcher Plant Loop. This trail was more our style, although the bog was hard to find.
While looking for the bog, we found a few birds and interesting plants along the way.
We got a good workout today, hiking 7 miles while carrying our heavy cameras. I have a feeling; we are going to sleep good tonight.
Monday, we went to Fort Morgan. As we were looking around at the Ferry loading area, we sighted a pair of Bobolinks in the tall weeds.
There were also several Ruby-throated Hummingbirds feasting on the nectar of the Lantana near shore.
When the mosquitos started feasting on us, we headed to the beach entrance at Bon Secour to do some shorebird watching.
There were lots of shorebirds on the beach including the talented Gull-billed Terns performing their mating dance.
After walking about a mile and a half on the beach, we found a bench to sit on. It was so nice and relaxing watching the rolling waves and the shorebirds.
We also had a front row and center seat to the fabulous Dolphin Show. We sat there for over an hour watching several different pods of dolphins, lunging and blowing at the top of the water.
It has been a beautiful, beach bum kind of day!
We spent most of the day Tuesday hiking at Bon Secour NWR. Our first hike was the 1 mile loop on the Jeff Friend Trail. We enjoyed listening to all the birds in the woods and managed to get a few pictures of them.
The trail made it's way through the woods then out to the bay. There were lots of pretty plants and lots of Six-lined Racers along the way.
Our next hike was the Pine Beach Trail. The first half of the trail was walking on a road, the second half of the trail was walking through loose sand. We definitely got our work out in, on this 4 mileroundtrip trail.
All the trudging through the sand, was well worth it, to get to the beautiful, secluded beach.
Wednesday, was a stay at camp, and relax kind of day. We finally got a walk around in the Escapee Park neighborhood. We took a lot of pictures of critters and plants along the way. We found out from one of the residents that there is another birding trail at Fort Morgan that we will check out tomorrow.
Pam stopped by for an overnight visit on her way to Granby from Tampa. It was great to visit with our friend.
Thursday, we checked the hot spot for migratory birds at Fort Morgan. Everyone we talked to, told us the birding was exceptional last week. We were obviously a week late. The mosquitos on the other hand, were quite plentiful.
The trail was not a bust, we enjoyed the few birds that we saw. We also enjoyed the fact the Lauren saw a Cottonmouth on our trail before we got too close. Needless to say, we rerouted to go around him.
After lunch, we headed down the beach. The waves were rolling big time today.
The Great Blue Herons were very friendly and photogenic. As Lauren was taking a picture of a dead shark, 2 of them walked within a few feet of him. I guess they wanted their picture taken too.
The Dolphins weren't as active as the other day, but the waves weren't this active either. We did see some on our walk back.
After getting in over 4 miles of hiking, we went back to camp and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon.
Friday was supposed to be, go home day, but we changed our minds when we saw the weather forecast. This gave us another day of sightseeing.
We made another hike at Weeks Bay Pitcher Plant bog. We enjoyed the walk again.
We took a drive to Fairhope Pier, making several stops along the way. We walked out to the end of the pier taking pictures of birds.
We drove to the end of the beach front and had our lunch. We were enjoying walking around taking pictures until the rain put a damper on it.
We relaxed at camp while it rained, then took Ferny Kat out for a while. It was good to have a rain delay so we could have another great day in LA, (Lower Alabama).
We pulled out and headed home on this beautiful Friday morning. The Spring Fling has been a blast!
